Method and apparatus for annotating an electronic document

ABSTRACT

A method and apparatus to mark-up an electronic document (i.e., a second electronic document) that is superimposed on a first electronic document keeping the first electronic document unchanged. The second electronic document is optionally viewed concurrently with the first electronic document. The second electronic document is capable of being viewed or modified using different application programs so long as the different application programs process the format used by the second electronic document. The second electronic document is saved as a separate document independent of the first electronic document.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to computer systems. Moreparticularly, this invention relates to application programs forcomputer systems.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE/PERMISSION

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains materialthat is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has noobjection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentor the patent disclosure as it appears in the Patent and TrademarkOffice patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrightrights whatsoever. The following notice applies to the software and dataas described below and in the drawings hereto: Copyright© 2000, AppleComputer, Inc., All Rights Reserved.

BACKGROUND

As the use of computers and the Internet have proliferated, so too hasthe use of application programs. A multitude of application programsexist for performing tasks such as word processing, accounting, graphicart, etc. In addition, there are numerous platforms or operating systemson which these application programs operate. For example, Apple®Macintosh® machines may use the Mac OS X operating system and supportMicrosoft's Word X for word processing, whereas Compaq® machines may usethe Microsoft Windows operating system and support Microsoft word forword processing.

There are application programs that enable a user to provide a note(e.g., an annotation, a drawing, etc.) in another application program(e.g., a word processing document). The note is displayed over part ofthe text and images of the word processing document. (see U.S. Pat. No.5,559,942 issued to Gough et al. of Apple Computer Inc., of CupertinoCalif.). The note provides a useful means for a user to annotate theunderlying word processing document and is displayed using an anchorobject in the word processing document.

The notes described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,559,942 are not separable fromthe document in which they appear. Moreover, a document that includesthe notes created on a machine with a particular operating system maynot be viewed on another machine with a different operating system. Whatis needed, therefore, is a method and apparatus to mark-up an electronicdocument (i.e., a second electronic document) that is superimposed on afirst electronic document (e.g., a word processing document) keeping thefirst electronic document unchanged. The second electronic document isoptionally viewed concurrently with the first electronic document, andthe second electronic document is capable of being viewed or modifiedusing different application programs so long as the differentapplication programs process the format used by the second electronicdocument. The second electronic document is saved as a separate documentindependent of the first electronic document. Furthermore, theapplication programs that permit the second electronic document to beviewed or modified may be operational on machines that use the sameoperating system as the machine that created the second electronicdocument. Alternately, the application programs that permit the secondelectronic document to be viewed or modified may be operational onmachines that use a different operating system so long as theapplication programs process the format of the second electronicdocument.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A method and apparatus to mark-up an electronic document (i.e., a secondelectronic document) that is superimposed on a first electronic document(e.g., a word processing document) keeping the first electronic documentunchanged. The second electronic document is optionally viewedconcurrently with the first electronic document. The second electronicdocument is capable of being viewed or modified using differentapplication programs so long as the different application programsprocess the format used by the second electronic document. The secondelectronic document is saved as a separate document independent of thefirst electronic document. Furthermore, the application programs thatpermit the second electronic document to be viewed or modified may beoperational on machines that use the same operating system as themachine that created the second electronic document. Alternately, theapplication programs that permit the second electronic document to beviewed or modified may be operational on machines that use a differentoperating system so long as the application programs process the formatof the second electronic document.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention is illustrated by way of example and notlimitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings, in which likereferences indicate similar elements and in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a computer system according to oneembodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 illustrates a display screen according to one embodiment of theinvention;

FIG. 3 illustrates a flow diagram for opening, editing, and savingapplications according to one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 4 illustrates a block diagram of a machine accessible mediumaccording to one embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Described is a method and apparatus to mark-up an electronic document(i.e., a second electronic document) that is superimposed on a firstelectronic document (e.g., a word processing document) keeping the firstelectronic document unchanged. The second electronic document isoptionally viewed concurrently with the first electronic document. Thesecond electronic document is capable of being viewed or modified usingdifferent application programs so long as the different applicationprograms process the format used by the second electronic document. Thesecond electronic document is saved as a separate document independentof the first electronic document. Furthermore, the application programsthat permit the second electronic document to be viewed or modified maybe operational on machines that use the same operating system as themachine that created the second electronic document. Alternately, theapplication programs that permit the second electronic document to beviewed or modified may be operational on machines that use a differentoperating system so long as the application programs process the formatof the second electronic document.

In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth inorder to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. Itwill be apparent, however, to one of ordinary skill in the art that thepresent invention may be practiced without these specific details. Inother instances, well-known architectures, steps, and techniques havenot been shown to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the present invention.

Parts of the description may be presented using terminology commonlyemployed by those skilled in the art to convey the substance of theirwork to others skilled in the art. Also, parts of the description may bepresented in terms of operations performed through the execution ofprogramming instructions. As well understood by those skilled in theart, these operations often take the form of electrical, magnetic, oroptical signals capable of being stored, transferred, combined, andotherwise manipulated through, for instance, electrical components.

The invention may utilize a distributed computing environment. In adistributed computing environment, program modules (e.g., theapplication program) may be physically located in different local andremote memory storage devices. Execution of the program modules mayoccur locally in a stand-alone manner or remotely in a client/servermanner. Examples of such distributed computing environments includelocal area networks, enterprise-wide computer networks, and the globalInternet.

In addition, it should be understood that the programs, processes,method, etc. described herein are not related or limited to anyparticular computer or apparatus nor are they related or limited to anyparticular communication network architecture. Rather, various types ofgeneral-purpose machines may be used with program modules constructed inaccordance with the teachings described herein. Similarly, it may proveadvantageous to construct a specialized apparatus to perform the methodsteps described herein by way of dedicated computer systems in aspecific network architecture with hard-wired logic or programs storedin nonvolatile memory such as read only memory.

Various operations will be described as multiple discrete stepsperformed in turn in a manner that is helpful in understanding thepresent invention. However, the order of description should not beconstrued as to imply that these operations are necessarily performed inthe order they are presented, or even order dependent. Lastly, repeatedusage of the phrase “in one embodiment” does not necessarily refer tothe same embodiment, although it may.

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a computer system according to oneembodiment of the invention. The computer system 100 illustrated in FIG.1 is used to store and execute an application program. The applicationprogram permits a user to mark-up an electronic document (i.e., a secondelectronic document) that is superimposed on a first electronic document(e.g., a word processing document) keeping the first electronic documentunchanged. In one embodiment, an application program marks up the secondelectronic document automatically (e.g., by finding and replacingcertain data strings in the second electronic document as specified by auser). In one embodiment, the second electronic document may bemarked-up without opening the first electronic document (e.g., byindicating the first electronic document by highlighting or pointing tothe name of the first electronic document on the desktop or in adirectory on the computer screen). The application program permits theuser to optionally view the second electronic document concurrently withthe first electronic document. In one embodiment, the second electronicdocument may be superimposed over the first electronic document when thefirst electronic document is displayed in an annotated mode. Forexample, the second electronic document may be viewed or displayedindependent of the first electronic document; so also, the firstelectronic document may be viewed or displayed independent of the secondelectronic document. The second electronic document generated by theapplication program is capable of being viewed or modified usingdifferent application programs so long as the different applicationprograms process the format used by the second electronic document. Thesecond electronic document may be saved as a separate documentindependent of the first electronic document. Furthermore, theapplication programs that permit the second electronic document to beviewed or modified may be operational on machines that use the sameoperating system as the machine that created the second electronicdocument. Alternately, the application programs that permit the secondelectronic document to be viewed or modified may be operational onmachines that use a different operating system so long as theapplication programs process the format of the second electronicdocument.

Although the embodiment of FIG. 1 uses a personal computer to run theapplication program described above, other devices including wirelessdevices such as cellular phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs)may also be used to run the application program. One embodiment of thepresent invention may be implemented using personal computer (PC)architecture. It will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the artthat alternative computer system architectures or other processor,programmable or electronic-based devices may also be employed.

In general, such computer systems as illustrated by FIG. 1 include aprocessor 102 coupled through a bus 101 to a random access memory (RAM)103, a read only memory (ROM) 104, and a mass storage device 107. Massstorage device 107 represents a persistent data storage device, such asa floppy disk drive, fixed disk drive (e.g., magnetic, optical,magneto-optical, or the like), or streaming tape drive for storing theapplication program. Processor 102 may be any of a wide variety ofgeneral-purpose processors or microprocessors (such as the 68000 seriesprocessor manufactured by Motorola® Corporation), a special purposeprocessor, or a specifically programmed logic device.

In one embodiment, processor 102 generates an electronic document (i.e.,a second electronic document) and permits a user or an applicationprogram to mark-up the electronic document that is superimposed on afirst electronic document (e.g., a word processing document), keepingthe integrity of the first electronic document unchanged. In oneembodiment, the second electronic document may be marked-up withoutopening the first electronic document. The first electronic document maybe specified e.g., by specifying the name of the first electronicdocument by typing the name of the document, or by pointing to the nameof the document and selecting the document by clicking a mouse on thename of the document on a desktop or in a directory on a computerscreen. The second electronic document is optionally viewed concurrentlywith the first electronic document. The second electronic document iscapable of being viewed or modified using different applicationprograms, so long as the different application programs process theformat used by the second electronic document. The second electronicdocument is saved as a separate document independent of the firstelectronic document. Furthermore, the application programs that permitthe second electronic document to be viewed or modified may beoperational on machines that use the same operating system as themachine that created the second electronic document. Alternately, theapplication programs that permit the second electronic document to beviewed or modified may be operational on machines that use a differentoperating system so long as the application programs process the formatof the second electronic document.

In one embodiment, processor 102 via the application program generates,edits, and saves the second electronic document in standard portabledocument format (PDF). In one embodiment, the PDF document is createdand saved using proprietary tags, however, in alternate embodiments thePDF document may be created and saved without proprietary tags. Usingthe standard PDF enables the second electronic document to be generated,edited, viewed, and saved using any application that allows theprocessing of PDF documents. Although the operations on the secondelectronic document are listed as generating, editing, viewing, andsaving, one skilled in the art will appreciate that other operations,such as compression, encryption, decryption etc. may also be performedon the second electronic document. One skilled in the art willappreciate that not all applications need generate, edit, save, orpermit the viewing of a PDF document. Some applications may permit thegenerating, editing, viewing and saving of the PDF document, while otherapplications may permit just the viewing of the PDF document withoutpermitting modification to the PDF document. The PDF document createdmay be generated, edited, viewed, and saved on any operating systemplatform so long as the operating system platform has an applicationthat allows for the processing of PDF documents. Although thedescription above specifies the use of applications that process filesusing the standard PDF, one skilled in the art will appreciate thatapplications that process other formats that permit operations,including but not limited to, generating, editing, viewing, and savingfiles across different operating systems may alternatively be used togenerate the second electronic document.

In one embodiment, the application program that generates the secondelectronic document comprises a menu bar that includes a suite of toolsthat enables processor 102 to perform various functions. The suite oftools has a drop-down menu that permits the selection of programs fromthe drop-down menu. In particular, icons or text in the menu bar launcha program whenever a pointing device (e.g., a mouse) selects theparticular icon or text in the menu bar. The menu bar including thesuite of tools, may be opened, closed, dragged, and used in anyapplication. In one embodiment, the menu bar including the suite oftools may be dragged into a word-processing document (e.g., a Microsoft®word document), a financial document (e.g., a Microsoft® Excel document)or a graphics document (e.g., a Microsoft® Visio document). When a filefrom the menu bar is selected (e.g., a new file or an existing file),the file that opens (i.e., the second electronic document) issuperimposed on the Word, Excel, or Visio (i.e., the first electronicdocument) document beneath. Markings such as drawings, handwriting, ortext are entered in the second electronic document, keeping theunderlying document (i.e., the first electronic document) unchanged.

A program in the suite of tools (e.g., a transparency tool) may beselected to change the transparency of the background of the secondelectronic document such that the first electronic document isinvisible, partially visible or fully visible.

The suite of tools permits the mark-up of the second electronic documentusing a pointing device such as stylus 117 and tablet 116, a touchsensitive screen (not shown), a keyboard, a mouse, or some otherpointing or information entry device.

The suite of tools, via a character recognition tool, recognizes bothtext and handwriting in the first electronic document and copies partsthereof into the second electronic document. In one embodiment, theparts copied into the second electronic document are parts that aremarked for copying by, for example, highlighting, circling, pointingetc. The parts marked for copying are highlighted, in the secondelectronic document. In one embodiment, since the second electronicdocument is transparent, the text or items marked for copying areclearly visible in the first electronic document through the secondelectronic document.

In one embodiment, text or objects that are in the second electronicdocument may be concatenated. Concatenating the text or objects in thesecond electronic document facilitates the reading of the concatenatedmaterial. In addition, the suite of tools provides a spell-check for thetext in the second electronic document.

The application program permit a user to enter text in the secondelectronic document by typing, copying from another document using cutand paste methods well known in the art, or via a handwriting tool suchas a stylus or other input methods. The suite of tools, via a margintool, permits the creation of one or more margins in the secondelectronic document. In addition, the suite of tools provides tools toattach audio, video, or audio-video scripts or segments in the secondelectronic document to correspond with material in the first electronicdocument. In one embodiment, the audio text is input via a microphone,and the video is input via a camera that is illustrated as input devices106.

The suite of tools provides tools for changing various parameters in thesecond electronic document including but not limited to the font type,font size, font color, line color, line shapes, line type, linethickness etc.

In one embodiment the suite of tools allow the second electronicdocument to be marked-up without opening the first electronic document(e.g., by indicating the first electronic document by highlighting orpointing to the name of the first electronic document on the desktop orin a directory on the computer screen).

In one embodiment the suite of tools permit the user to optionally viewthe second electronic document concurrently with the first electronicdocument. In other embodiments, the second electronic document may besuperimposed over the first electronic document when the firstelectronic document is displayed in an annotated mode. For example, thesecond electronic document may be viewed or displayed independent of thefirst electronic document; so also, the first electronic document may beviewed or displayed independent of the second electronic document.

FIG. 2 illustrates a display screen according to one embodiment of theinvention. As illustrated in FIG. 2, display screen 200 of the secondelectronic document is superimposed upon a text document 250 (the firstelectronic document). Menu bar 205 includes the suite of tools 210(e.g., indicated as “Tools” in the menu bar). Menu bar 205 may beopened, closed, dragged, and used in any application. In one embodiment,the transparency of the second electronic document is controlled byslider bar 215 that may be adjusted to allow for the first electronicdocument to be totally visible (i.e., the background of the secondelectronic document is totally transparent), for the first electronicdocument 250 to be invisible (i.e., the background of second electronicdocument is opaque) or for the visibility of the first electronicdocument to be controlled by a varying degree.

In one embodiment, markings such as drawings, handwriting, or text areentered in second electronic document 200, keeping the underlyingdocument (the first electronic document) 250 unchanged.

Using an input device e.g., a stylus or a mouse the second electronicdocument may be marked-up as illustrated in FIG. 2. By keeping thebackground of the second electronic document transparent or nearlytransparent, a stylus or mouse may be used to circle text in the firstelectronic document, with the markings appearing in the secondelectronic document. As FIG. 2 illustrates, the text “fox jumps” at 255is in the first electronic document 250, however, the circling of thetext 210 occurs in the second electronic document 200. So also theannotation “can be other colors” at 220 occurs in the second electronicdocument 200. By marking up the first electronic document such that themarkings occur in the second electronic document the first electronicdocument is unchanged. In one embodiment, the annotation 220 may betyped, handwritten e.g., using a pen or stylus, or copied from anotherelectronic document and pasted in document 200.

In one embodiment, the application program that generates the secondelectronic document uses the standard PDF to generate the secondelectronic document. In one embodiment, multiple document pairs may beopened at any given time (e.g., a Word document and the correspondingsuperimposed second electronic word document, and an excel spreadsheetand the corresponding superimposed second electronic Excel document).Material may be copied from one superimposed second document to anothersuperimposed second document (e.g., from the second electronic Worddocument to the second electronic Excel document, or from an underlyingdocument to superimposed documents e.g., from the Word document to thesecond electronic Excel document.

In another embodiment, the association of the documents may be changede.g., the second electronic Word document that is associated with theWord document may be changed such that the second electronic Exceldocument may be associated with the Word document.

In one embodiment, the suite of tools, via a scroll bar 216 allows forscrolling the second electronic document, such that, concurrently withthe scrolling of the second electronic document the first electronicdocument optionally scrolls. In addition, the suite of tools permits auser to switch focus i.e., move the first electronic document to thefront of the computer screen and move the second electronic document tothe background of the computer screen and vice versa.

In FIG. 1 display device 105 is coupled to processor 102 through bus 101and provides graphical output for computer system 100. Input devices 106such as a keyboard or mouse are coupled to bus 101 for communicatinginformation and command selections to processor 102. Also coupled toprocessor 102 through bus 101 is an input/output interface 110 which canbe used to control and transfer data to electronic devices (tablet 116,printers, other computers, etc.) connected to computer system 100.Tablet 116 may be used in conjunction with stylus 117 to transferinformation to and from computer system 100. Computer system 100includes network devices 108 for connecting computer system 100 to anetwork 114 through which documents may be sent and received, e.g., toand from remote device 112. Network devices 108, may include Ethernetdevices, phone jacks and satellite links. It will be apparent to one ofordinary skill in the art that other network devices may also beutilized.

One embodiment of the invention may be stored entirely as a softwareproduct on mass storage 107. Another embodiment of the invention may beembedded in a hardware product, for example, in a printed circuit board,in a special purpose processor, or in a specifically programmed logicdevice communicatively coupled to bus 101. Still other embodiments ofthe invention may be implemented partially as a software product andpartially as a hardware product.

FIG. 3 illustrates a flow diagram for opening, editing, and savingapplications according to one embodiment of the invention. Asillustrated in FIG. 3, at 305 a user opens a first electronic document(e.g., a word document). At 310, the user opens a second electronicdocument (i.e., a document that is superimposed on the first document).In one embodiment, when a user opens the first electronic document theuser is automatically prompted by the application program that generatesthe second electronic document to open the second electronic document.In an alternate embodiment, at the time the first or the secondelectronic document is opened, the application program checks the firstelectronic document to determine if the first electronic document haschanged since the second electronic document that is associated with itwas saved. If there is a change in the first electronic document, theuser is notified of the change, and provided with the option of openinga new second electronic document or opening the existing associatedsecond electronic document. In one embodiment, when a user opens thefirst electronic document, the second electronic document isautomatically opened and vice versa. At 315, either when the seconddocument is opened or at any time thereafter the user is provided withthe option of associating the document opened at 305 (i.e., the firstelectronic document) with the second electronic document opened at 310.At 320, the user associates the first electronic document withsuperimposed second electronic document. If the user chooses not toassociate the first electronic document with the second electronicdocument, at 325 the user edits the second electronic document. At 330,prior to saving the second electronic document, a user may via the menubar in the second electronic document associate the second electronicdocument with the first electronic document. If a user associates thefirst electronic document with the second electronic document, at 335the user may save and/or close the first electronic document along withthe second electronic document. In one embodiment, once the twoelectronic documents are associated, when the first electronic documentis opened for editing, the second electronic document is optionallyautomatically opened. If a user chooses not to associate the firstelectronic document with the second electronic document, at 340, theuser may close the second electronic document without associating thetwo electronic documents.

FIG. 4 illustrates one embodiment of the invention stored on amachine-accessible medium. Embodiments of the invention may berepresented as a software product stored on a machine-accessible medium400 (also referred to as a computer-accessible medium or aprocessor-accessible medium). The machine-accessible medium 400 may beany type of magnetic, optical, or electrical storage medium including adiskette, CD-ROM, memory device (volatile or non-volatile), or similarstorage mechanism. The machine-accessible medium may contain varioussets of instructions 402, code sequences, configuration information, orother data. Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate thatother instructions and operations necessary to implement the describedinvention may also be stored on the machine-accessible medium.

The machine-accessible medium comprises instructions, incorporated inagent 422, that when executed by a machine causes the machine to performoperations comprising marking-up an electronic document (i.e., a secondelectronic document) that is superimposed on a first electronic document(e.g., a word processing document) keeping the first electronic documentunchanged. Providing an option to view the second electronic documentconcurrently with the first electronic document. The second electronicdocument is capable of being viewed or modified using differentapplication programs so long as the different application programsprocess the format used by the second electronic document. Processingthe format used by the second electronic document implies theapplication recognizing the format used by the second electronicdocument (e.g., the PDF). The second electronic document is saved as aseparate document independent of the first electronic document.Furthermore, the application programs that permit the second electronicdocument to be viewed or modified may be operational on machines thatuse the same operating system as the machine that created the secondelectronic document. Alternately, the application programs that permitthe second electronic document to be viewed or modified may beoperational on machines that use a different operating system so long asthe application programs process the format of the second electronicdocument.

Thus a method and apparatus have been disclosed for annotating anelectronic document that includes marking-up an electronic document(i.e., a second electronic document) that is superimposed on a firstelectronic document (e.g., a word processing document) keeping theintegrity of the first electronic document unchanged. While there hasbeen illustrated and described what are presently considered to beexample embodiments of the present invention, it will be understood bythose skilled in the art that various other modifications may be made,and equivalents may be substituted, without departing from the truescope of the invention. Additionally, many modifications may be made toadapt a particular situation to the teachings of the present inventionwithout departing from the central inventive concept described herein.Therefore, it is intended that the present invention not be limited tothe particular embodiments disclosed, but that the invention include allembodiments falling within the scope of the appended claims.

1. (canceled)
 2. A method, comprising: at an electronic device with adisplay and one or more input devices: while displaying a first documenton the display: receiving annotations that correspond to content in thefirst document via the one or more input devices, wherein theannotations are superimposed on the first document; storing theannotations in a second document, wherein the second document is anelectronic document that is different from the first document; savingthe second document independently of the first document; and aftersaving the second document: redisplaying the first document; and whileredisplaying the first document redisplaying the second documentsuperimposed on the first document.
 3. The method of claim 2, furthercomprising: copying at least a portion of the first document into atleast a portion of the second document.
 4. The method of claim 2,further comprising: optionally preventing any changes to the firstdocument.
 5. The method of claim 2, wherein redisplaying the firstdocument and redisplaying the second document is performed by anoperating system that is different from a first operating system of theelectronic device.
 6. The method of claim 2, wherein redisplaying thefirst document and redisplaying the second document is performed usingany browser application.
 7. The method of claim 2, further comprising:adjusting the background of the second document so that the firstdocument is any one of invisible, partially visible, and totallyvisible.
 8. The method of claim 2, wherein the first document is a wordprocessing file.
 9. The method of claim 2, wherein the first document isa spreadsheet file.
 10. A non-transitory computer-readable medium havingstored thereon instructions that are executable to cause a computersystem with a display and one or more input devices to performoperations comprising: while displaying a first document on the display:receiving annotations that correspond to content in the first documentvia the one or more input devices, wherein the annotations aresuperimposed on the first document; storing the annotations in a seconddocument, wherein the second document is an electronic document that isdifferent from the first document; saving the second documentindependently of the first document; and after saving the seconddocument: redisplaying the first document; and while redisplaying thefirst document redisplaying the second document superimposed on thefirst document.
 11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim10, the operations further comprising: copying at least a portion of thefirst document into at least a portion of the second document.
 12. Thenon-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10, the operationsfurther comprising: optionally preventing any changes to the firstdocument.
 13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10,wherein redisplaying the first document and redisplaying the seconddocument is performed by an operating system that is different from afirst Operating system of the computer system.
 14. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein redisplaying the firstdocument and redisplaying the second document is performed using anybrowser application.
 15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium ofclaim 10, the operations further comprising: adjusting the background ofthe second document so that the first document is any one of invisible,partially visible, and totally visible.
 16. A computer system,comprising: a processor; a display; one or more input devices; and adata storage device having stored thereon instructions which, whenexecuted by the processor, cause the computer system to performoperations comprising: while displaying a first document on the display:receiving annotations that correspond to content in the first documentvia the one or more input devices, wherein the annotations aresuperimposed on the first document; storing the annotations in a seconddocument, wherein the second document is an electronic document that isdifferent from the first document; saving the second documentindependently of the first document; and after saving the seconddocument: redisplaying the first document; and while redisplaying thefirst document redisplaying the second document superimposed on thefirst document.
 17. The computer system of claim 16, wherein theoperations further comprise: copying at least a portion of the firstdocument into at least a portion of the second document.
 18. Thecomputer system of claim 16, wherein the operations further comprise:optionally preventing any changes to the first document.
 19. Thecomputer system of claim 16, wherein redisplaying the first document andredisplaying the second document is performed by an operating systemthat is different from a first operating system of the computer system.20. The computer system of claim 16, wherein redisplaying the firstdocument and redisplaying the second document is performed using anybrowser application.
 21. The computer system of claim 16, wherein theoperations further comprise: adjusting the background of the seconddocument so that the first document is any one of invisible, partiallyvisible, and totally visible.